The Wedding Planner

WSJ -- The use of special White House advisers and the czar moniker itself go back decades, but government watchers say President Barack Obama has appointed an unusual number of senior coordinators, especially for a president so early in his administration. They have responsibilities ranging from health care and climate change to Afghanistan and the auto sector...

One concern about czars centers on the fact that many of these appointments aren't subject to confirmation by Congress. To have them running the government, rather than simply assisting the president, "is an affront to the Constitution," Mr. Alexander said. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd warned earlier this year that the growth of czars could sap congressional authority...

But it is true that the Obama administration has broadened the ranks of special advisers, in some cases giving large portfolios to officials who might have faced difficulties in a Senate confirmation process. Some Obama supporters acknowledge that a Senate vetting process would likely have uncovered earlier Mr. Jones's controversial past.

Obama's rhetoric about "obscene profits" and "discipline" in particular industries, "cutting cost" in health care and "stimulating competition" via government fiat is all very revealing. There's no doubt, this guy's a bona fide planner.

Planners have absolutely no clue as to how the economy, in its intricacies and complexities, even begins to function. The decisions of hundreds of millions and even billions of people all appear chaotic, disorganized, and even baneful. The notion of a "spontaneous order," that is, a functioning system of human interaction without the willful design of anybody at all, is totally antithetical to the planner's mindset. In his world, cost is always measurable and objective (it isn't), people benefit only at the expense of others in free trade (absolutely not), and statistics are the end-all be-all of economic science (when actually they only reveal a historical incidence that is not necessarily indicative of the future).

It should be no surprise that this guy has a large number of "czars" at his disposal. His modus operandi is making sure the individual is taken out of the decision-making picture as much as possible. This entire health care push is about exactly that, via making sure that competition is dead in the private sector so a public option is seen as the only solution.

However, I have about as much faith in Congress as I do in any of these "czars." So what are we losing, really?

It's a shame this guy has such a lust for central control. He'd make a great wedding planner or hotel manager. Maybe he could be the guy who organizes the Wal-Mart aisle layouts.

No, I'm not cynical.